“It gives me a bit more time to work with the players and it gives people time to ring up about our players, and that’s happening as we speak.”

Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, Stephen Hunt, Christophe Berra and Ronald Zubar are into their last six months and could be moved on if suitable offers are made.

“I have to try to balance the squad a little bit,” added Saunders.

“We’ve got five right wingers – Razak Boukari, Anthony Forde, Stephen Hunt, Adam Hammill and Slawomir Peszko. Kevin Foley can play there too but we’ve only got one fit left back at the minute. I have to try to even things out because I’ve got five right wingers not playing. They can’t all play so there’s something we can do there and it’s then who comes in for who and making a decision as late as we can on which players we get the best offer for.”

Saunders admits there has been interest in striker Ebanks-Blake.

“We’ve had some enquiries, but it was just someone asking me after I’d seen them one game. I hadn’t watched Sylvan play until last week. We’ve had one (call) in for Sylvan but it wasn’t Ipswich Town.

“We’ve had enquiries for a few of the players now.”

Saunders added: “I could have done with another month before the window shuts because we’re having to make rushed decisions without actually giving the players a fair crack of the whip.

“But that’s football and I’ll have to adjust and make some decisions now. A lot of the decisions I make will be with a view to next season as well.”

Saunders said the out-of-contract quartet need to prove themselves in the coming weeks: “I just need to see a bit more of them really,” he said.

“They need to prove to me that they want to be here. And if they prove that they’re prepared to be part of the group then they’ve got a chance of getting another contract